The present invention concerns a system for transferring supports for objects which can be stacked and unstacked and a printing machine including the system.
The present invention concerns offloading objects that are to be printed by a printing machine from stack supports for stacked objects and loading the supports with printed objects, for example.
As a general rule, the stack supports pass first through a loading station which transfers a stack support from a conveyor (a conveyor belt or the like) to an offloading unit at which the objects are unstacked and placed on the printing machine. The offloading unit includes a robot provided with holding means adapted to pick up a stacked object and put it down at a station of the printing machine, for example.
Similarly, a loading unit consisting of the robot referred to above, for example, takes up the printed objects one by one from a printing station of the machine and stacks them on an empty support which, when loaded, is evacuated by another conveyor.